Dynamically Managing Premises Management Traffic

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for dynamic communication and control of devices associated with a premises are disclosed. The systems and methods may include receiving first status information by a device associated with a premises; determining a priority condition based at least on the first status information; transmitting the first status information including a first differentiated services code point indicative of the priority condition; and transmitting second status information including a second differentiated services code point indicative of the normal condition.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/402,785, filed Jan. 10, 2017.

BACKGROUND

Premises management systems may capture and transmit information such assecurity video and status information relating to the managed premisesto enable remote monitoring and control of the premises. Existingsolutions for capturing and transmitting such information often consumessignificant network (e.g., Wi-Fi) bandwidth and resources. As anexample, utilization of network resources for frequent or continuoustransmission of status information and/or data may cause interruptionsin other services using the network, such as content transmission fromonline service provider. Additionally, some premises management systemsrequire modification to the captured data, which negatively affects theuser experience. These and other shortcomings are addressed in thisdisclosure.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, the present disclosure provides systems and methods fordynamic communication and control of premises devices such as videocapture devices (e.g., cameras), sensors, and the like. As an example, aconfiguration service may be configured to communicate with one or morepremises devices at boot up and/or on a defined interval toenable/disable status capture (e.g., video recording), define locationto post data such as video data, authenticate information such as usersor devices on the network, and determine data format/settings.

One or more premises devices may be configured to determine statusinformation associated with a premises. A priority condition may bedetermined based at least on the status information. As such, the statusinformation may be transmitted with an indication of the prioritycondition. For example, a first marker may be used to indicate thepriority condition when a premise management system is active or armedand a second marker may be used to indicate the priority condition whenthe premises management system is inactive or disarmed. Such markers maybe included in transmissions (e.g., packets) sent from the premisesdevices and/or premises management system. As a further example, adifferentiated services code point (DSCP) may be configured to indicatethe priority condition. As a further example, a DSCP may have one ormore values that indicate a normal condition and one or more values thatindicate a priority condition. Other conditions and status indicatorsmay be represented by a value of the DSCP. In certain aspects, theconfiguration service may configure one or more premises device to applyparticular DSCP values to transmissions (e.g., packets) to indicatevarious conditions and/or status indicators.

Additional advantages will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows or may be learned by practice. It is to be understood that boththe foregoing general description and the following detailed descriptionare examples and explanatory only and are not restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following drawings show generally, by way of example, but not by wayof limitation, various examples discussed in the present disclosure. Inthe drawings:

FIG. 1 shows an example premises security system;

FIG. 2 shows an example building security system;

FIG. 3A is a block diagram of an example system and network.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram of an example system and network showingtransmission of video segment of a captured video stream.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example system and network.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an example method.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an example method.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an example method.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of an example method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A premises management system may include one or more premises devicessuch as sensors configured to determine status information associatedwith a premises. The status information may include video, audio, and/oralphanumeric information relating to the premise, for example. Certainstatus information may have a higher priority that other statusinformation. For example, an alarm condition at a premises may indicatethat there is a security or safety breach affecting the premise. Assuch, status information associated with the alarm condition may have ahigher priority than status information associated with a non-alarmcondition. As a further example, priority may be dependent on a state(e.g., active, inactive, armed, disarmed, etc.) of a premises managementsystem associated with the premises devices.

A priority condition (e.g., high priority) may be determined based atleast on the status information and/or one or more priority rules.Priority rules may be customized and may be premises-specific,user-specific, or may be applied generically. The priority condition maybe used to control an aspect of transmission of information from thepremises. For example, status information may be transmitted with anindication of the priority condition. As another example, adifferentiated services code point (DSCP) may be configured to indicatethe priority condition. As a further, a DSCP may have one or more valuesthat indicate a normal priority and one or more values that indicate apriority condition at the premises. Other conditions and statusindicators may be represented by a value of the DSCP. In certainaspects, the configuration service may configure one or more premisesdevice to apply particular DSCP values to transmissions (e.g., packets)to indicate various conditions and/or status indicators.

FIG. 1 shows various aspects of an example network in which the presentmethods and systems may operate. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that present methods may be used in systems that employ bothdigital and analog equipment. One skilled in the art will appreciatethat provided herein is a functional description and that the respectivefunctions may be performed by software, hardware, or a combination ofsoftware and hardware.

As shown, a premises management system 10 may comprise a gateway 12disposed at a premises 14. The gateway 12 may be configured tofacilitate communications between a sensor network 16 and a computingdevice 18 via a communication network such as a private or publicnetwork (e.g., Internet) using one or more protocols (e.g., Internetprotocol). The gateway 12 may be or comprise a computing device thatallows one or more other devices in the premises 14 to communicate withthe computing device 18 and other devices beyond the computing device18. The gateway 12 may be or comprise a wireless router/terminal,set-top box (STB), digital video recorder (DVR), computer server, or anyother desired computing device. The gateway 12 may also include (notshown) local network interfaces to provide communication signals toother devices in the home (e.g., user devices), such as televisions,STBs, personal computers, laptop computers, wireless devices (wirelesslaptops and netbooks, mobile phones, mobile televisions, personaldigital assistants (PDA), etc.), and any other desired devices. Examplesof the local network interfaces may include Multimedia Over CoaxAlliance (MoCA) interfaces, Ethernet interfaces, universal serial bus(USB) interfaces, wireless interfaces (e.g., IEEE 802.11), Bluetoothinterfaces, and others.

The sensor network 16 may comprise one or more premises device such asvideo capture devices and premise management sensors. The sensor network16 may comprise an electronic device such as a computer, a sensor, acapture device, a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, a set top box, orother device capable of communicating with the computing device 18. Thesensor network 16 may be configured to communicate, directly or via thegateway 12, with the computing device 18 and/or other network devicesvia a network. The sensor network 16 may be configured as a premisesmanagement sensor. Although a sensor may be configured to receive or“sense” information such as status information, the sensor mayalternatively or additionally be configured as a control mechanism ortransmitter. As such, premises management sensors may collect statusinformation indicative of one or more conditions at the premises 14. Thepremises management sensors may control one or more home security orhome automation features. The premises management sensors may transmitscommands, control information, and/or status information, for example,to various connected devices such as the gateway 12 or a connected homeappliance.

The sensor network 16 may be or comprise a video capture device such asa camera or image sensor. The configurations of the sensor network 16may be managed in response to settings and/or other information receivedfrom the computing device 18 or other devices. The video segments may betransmitted to the computing device 18 in a periodic fashion, therebyminimizing burden on network resources such as bandwidth. The computingdevice 18 may process the received video segments and distribute thevideo segments to the appropriate video store. Once the video clips arestored, one or more recipient device s (not shown), such as video clientapplications, may access or received the video segments for playback.

The sensor network 16 may be configured to determine status informationassociated with the premises 14. The status information may includevideo, audio, and/or alphanumeric information relating to the premise,for example. Certain status information may have a higher priority thatother status information. For example, an alarm condition at thepremises 14 may indicate that there is a security or safety breachaffecting the premise. As such, status information associated with thealarm condition may have a higher priority than status informationassociated with a non-alarm condition. As another example, statusinformation indicating an alarm at a door or window (e.g., break-in) maybe prioritized over status information indicating a request forstreaming content. As another example, status information associatedwith a personal emergency response system (PERS) or monitored connectedhealth devices (e.g., heart monitor, wearable device, etc.) may beassociated with the highest priority. As another example, statusinformation indicating entry at a door or window of the premises may beprioritized over non-alarm communications such as home automationcontrol over lighting at the premises, for example. As a furtherexample, status information may be prioritized (e.g., normal, highpriority, etc.) based at least on a state of a premises managementsystem, (e.g., sensor network 16, security system, home automationsystem, etc.). As such, when the premises management system is armed oractive, a first marker may be used to indicate a higher prioritycondition than a normal condition. When the premises management system,is disarmed or inactive, a second marker may be used to indicate anormal condition.

A priority condition (e.g., higher priority than a normal/defaultcondition) may be determined based at least on the status informationand/or one or more priority rules. Priority rules may be customized andmay be premises-specific, user-specific, or may be applied generically.The priority condition may be used to control an aspect of transmissionof information from the premises. For example, status information may betransmitted with an indication of the priority condition. As anotherexample, a differentiated services code point (DSCP) may be configuredto indicate the priority condition. As a further, a DSCP may have one ormore values that indicate a normal priority and one or more values thatindicate a priority condition. Other conditions and status indicatorsmay be represented by a value of the DSCP. In certain aspects, theconfiguration service may configure one or more premises device to applyparticular DSCP values to transmissions (e.g., packets) to indicatevarious conditions and/or status indicators.

A marker such as a DSCP value may indicate a level of network trafficprocessing priority. For example, a default marker value may be 000 000and may indicate a best effort traffic management over a network. Assuch, a network device (e.g., router) may implement its best efforts topass a packet with this default service level. As a further example,other marker values such as 101 110 may indicate a higher level ofservice as compared to the best effort. Such a higher level of service(e.g., priority condition) may include expedited forwarding or assuredforwarding. Information (e.g., packets) marked with higher levels ofservice (e.g., priority) are more likely to be processed through anetwork device without packet loss during congestion, as compared todefault level packets.

Mapping of markers such as DSCP values to a particular condition (e.g.,alarm condition, priority condition, non-alarm condition, active/armedcondition, disarmed/inactive condition, etc.) may be processed and/orstored locally to the premises 14, such as at gateway 12, and/or remotefrom the premise 14, such as computing device 18, or other device orservice. As such, the sensor network 16 may receive such mapping via oneor more of a push and pull communication. For example, the sensornetwork 16 may receive mapping information associated with the markingsas a pushed configuration update. As a further example, the sensornetwork 16 may receive the mapping information in response to a request.Once the mapping information is received at the sensor network 16, thesensor network 16 may use the mapping information to selectively marktransmissions such as outgoing packets (e.g., status information.Information marking may be applied to IP packets, as described, or otherkinds of packets or units of data, such as TCP, FTP, flows, datagrams,frames, or other data units or capsules.

FIG. 2 shows a premises management system 20 that may be configured tosupport surveillance and services, such as security and monitoringservices, for a home, office, or other premises 22. A management serviceprovider 24, such as a central monitoring station, may communicate withthe premises 22 to support any number of building management processes(e.g., security, home automation, etc.). The system 20 may supportmanagement processes that rely on one or more sensors 26, such as audio,video, temperature, air quality, and presence sensors, to monitorrelated conditions within the premises 22. The sensors 26 may beexamples implementations of the sensor network 16 described with regardsto FIG. 1. Data regarding the monitored conditions may be communicatedover a network 28 to a computing device 30. While FIG. 2 shows an aspectof the disclosure in connection with a building, the systems and methodsof the present disclosure are not limited to implementation with abuilding or facility.

The network 28 may be any type of wireless or wireline network such as,but not limited, to a high speed data network used by content serviceproviders to support television content transmissions and/or other typesof networks used to support high speed data transmission and signaling.The network 28 may include one or more network devices configured tofacilitate the transmission of information based on service levels andnetwork polices. Such service levels may include priority processing ofinformation, wherein certain information is processed with a highpriority than other information, thereby minimizing a risk of droppinginformation during congestion on the network 28. These service levelsmay be implemented based at least on information markers (e.g., DSCP)indicating a particular service level or priority for processing. Thenetwork 28 may be used to support periodic and/or continuoustransmission of data from the sensors 26 regardless of whether themonitored conditions have changed. This data may be transmitted to thecomputing device 30 for further processing.

The computing device 30 may assess the need to instigate an alarm fromthe information provided by the sensors 26. A gateway 32, for example aset-top box (STB), cable modem, router, and/or other serviceprovider/supported device within the building may be used to communicatethe data collected by the sensors 26 regarding the conditions in thepremises 22 to the computing device 30. The gateway 32 may be the sameor similar to the gateway 12 described with respect to FIG. 1. Thegateway 32 encapsulates or otherwise packages the data provided by thesensors 26 for transmission to the computing device 30 withoutperforming management-related processing.

The computing device 30 may be configured to monitor conditions in anumber of premises 22 and to separately instigate alarms in eachpremises 22. Each premises 22 may similarly transmit sensed conditionsto the computing device 30 for processing. Because the computing device30 is used instead of the gateway 32 to assess the need for the alarm,the computing device 30 is updated to support updated functionality ineach of the premises 22 without requiring significant updates in thebuildings. This may limit the cost of updates when the service provider24 provides additional services to customers.

The computing device 30 may include any number of applications thatperform any number of security processes, such as, but not limited to,those associated with person monitoring, video monitoring, audiomonitoring, medical monitoring, energy management, and/or somecombination thereof.

For example, monitoring may include monitoring for movements within thepremises 22 and generating an alarm if movements are not determined overa period of time. Video monitoring may use facial recognition or othertechniques to assess whether intruders are within the premises 22. Forexample, a video camera 40 may be included to capture video from withinthe premises 22, and a DVR 42 may begin recording video when presencedetectors sense a presence within a room while the building securitysystem 20 is armed. This video may be transmitted to the computingdevice 30 for intruder analysis and/or alarm verification. Similarly,audio monitoring may operate with the video monitoring to supportrelated security assessments. The information from any sensor 26 may beused with information from the other sensors 26 to assess the need foran alarm.

In certain aspects, security-related processing associated withtriggering the alarms is performed by the computing device 30. Thisalleviates processing demands on the gateway 32. If changes or otherupdates to the security process are needed, i.e., to support newfunctionality, home devices, sensors, etc., the computing device 30 maybe updated instead of requiring significant updates to the gateway 32.

An alarm condition at a premises may indicate that there is a securityor safety breach affecting the premise. As such, status informationassociated with the alarm condition may have a higher priority (e.g.,importance) than status information associated with a non-alarmcondition. The priority associated with status information and/or alarmconditions may be used to control an aspect of transmission ofinformation from the premises. For example, status information may betransmitted with an indication of the priority. As another example, adifferentiated services code point (DSCP) may be configured to indicatethe priority. As a further, a DSCP may have one or more values thatindicate a normal priority and one or more values that indicate a highpriority. Other conditions and status indicators may be represented by avalue of the DSCP. As such, when recipient devices (e.g., networkdevices) receive information including the indication of priority, therecipient device may execute and/or modify a particular operation basedon the indication of priority.

As an example, in the context of video security systems, an alarmcondition at a premises may be detected by one or more sensors 26.Information associated with the alarm condition may be transmitted via anetwork to a user or monitoring service. Under default transmissionconditions, congestion on the network may inhibit the alarm conditionfrom reaching the user on a timely basis due to latency or informationloss. However, the information relating to the alarm condition may bemarked to indicate that the underlying information (e.g., payload) isassociated with an alarm condition and therefore should be processedwith a high level of service (e.g., priority). Information bearing thispriority marker may be processed by network devices to minimizeinformation loss and latency, while default traffic is processed with alower level of service. Accordingly, conditions at the premises may betransmitted based on an importance of the particular condition.Conditional hierarchies and tables may be pre-determined for aparticular premises, user, region, account, market, or may be appliedat-large.

In one aspect of the disclosure, a system may be configured to provideservices such as network-related services. FIGS. 3A-3B show variousaspects of an example environment in which the present methods andsystems may operate. The present disclosure is relevant to systems andmethods for dynamic communication and control of premises devices 302such as video capture devices (e.g., cameras), sensors, and the like. Asan example, a configuration service 306 may be configured to communicatewith one or more premises devices 302 at boot up, on a defined interval,and/or persistent connection to enable/disable one or more managementservices. The configuration service 306 may provide configurationinformation including one or more values of a packet marker (e.g., DSCPvalue) The configuration information may comprise information thatdefines a location to post data such as video data and/or sensor data.

As an example, the premises device 302 such as a sensor may beconfigured via the configuration service 306 to transmit packets ofinformation to a management service 303. The transmission of suchpackets may include the marking of each of the packets with a packetmarker such as a DSCP. The packet marker may indicate a particularcondition, priority, importance, and the like associated with theunderlying information (e.g., payload).

The management service 303 may process the received information (e.g.,packets) and may execute one or more operations based at least on thepacket markers. As another example, the management service 303 mayfacilitate the storage of video segments under a default or normalcondition, as represented by the packet marker. However, a packet markerindicating an alarm condition may cause the management service 303 toalert a user or recipient device 316. One or more recipient devices 316may receive an alert that an alarm condition is occurring. Additionallyor alternatively, the packet marker may be received by interveningdevices such as network devices that are configured to manage networktraffic based at least on the packet markers.

The management service 303 may comprise hardware and/or softwareconfigured to facilitate the access or receipt of information such asvideo segments from one or more premises device 302 associated with apremises. As an example, the management service 303 may be configured tocommunicate with the premises devices 302 via an IP network usingstandard protocols, as appreciated by one of skill in the art. As afurther example, the premises devices 302 may be configured to transmit(e.g., push) information such as a video segments in a period manner. Assuch, the premises devices 302 may capture video continuously and maycache segments of video having a predetermined length of time. The videosegments may be transmitted periodically to the management service 303for storage external to the premises. As an example, the managementservice 303 may process the received information and may cause theinformation to be stored, for example via the video store 304. Variousstorage mechanisms may be used. For example, the management service 303may facilitate the storage of video segments in multiple locations forgeo-redundancy.

The configuration service 306 may comprise hardware and/or softwareconfigured to facilitate configuration of settings relating to theoperation of one or more premises devices 302. As an example, theconfiguration service 306 access or receives a requests from the premisedevices 302 associated with a configuration settings and returns theconfiguration for the particular premise device 302.

The premises device 302 may receive or access configuration informationusing various protocols, conventions, and specifications. As an example,the premises device 302 may request configuration information using anHTTP GET. Such a request is shown below as Table 1:

TABLE 1 > GET /config/1234567890AB > Host:config-cvr.g.hostaddress.com > Connection: close > User-Agent: SercommiCamera2-C V3.0.02.35 1234567890AB > X-Request-Id:944A0C203683-001-20160225073739 > X-Seq: 55 > Authorization: Basic0987654321FEDCBA > < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Content-Type: application/xml <Request-Time: 22 < Content-Length: 1511

As shown in Table 1, the request for configuration information mayinclude an identifier or designation indicating a path (e.g.,/config/1234567890AB) associated with the configuration information forthe particular premises device 302. The request may include a hostidentifier such as config-cvr.g.hostaddress.com indicating an address ofthe service host. The request may include an indication of theconnection status (e.g., Connection: close),

The request for configuration information may include one or moreidentifiers relating of the source of the request, such as the premisesdevice 302. The identifiers may include make, model, firmware version,device identifier (e.g., cameraId) such as shown in Table 1 as“User-Agent: Sercomm iCamera2-C V3.0.02.35 1234567890AB,” where make isSercomm, model is iCamera2-C, firmware version is V3.0.02.35, and deviceidentifier is 1234567890AB. Other identifiers may also be used, such asa request identifier that may be unique for each request (e.g.,X-Request-Id: 944A0C203683-001-20160225073739).

Communications between the premises device 302 and the configurationservice, or other services, may be logged. As an example, each attemptedrequest for configuration information may be tracked using anincremental field such as “X-Seq: 55,” shown in Table 1. As a furtherexample, the attempted request log may be set to zero when the premisesdevice 302 is restarted.

The request for configuration information may include authorizationinformation such as an authorization header (e.g., Authorization: Basic0987654321FEDCBA), which may be based on the standard or protocol beingimplemented for the request. The request for configuration informationmay include additional information such as receipt confirmation (e.g.,HTTP/1.1 200 OK), content type (e.g., Content-Type: application/xml),request process time (e.g., Request-Time: 22), response content length(e.g., Content-Length: 1511 (in bytes)), and the like.

The recipient (e.g., configuration service 306) of the request forconfiguration information may process the request and provide aresponse. As an example, the response may include configurationinformation such as device settings and may be transmitted using variousprotocols, conventions, and specifications. The configuration service306 may be configured to communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., via anetwork gateway) with one or more of the premises devices 302 to accesssettings relating to the premises devices 302 and/or to update thesettings for operation of the premises devices 302. The settings may beprovided in various data structures and formats, including, and mayinclude parameters such as activation/deactivation, light sensitivity,firmware, storage location, captured video format, and captured videoduration.

Settings provided via the configuration service 306 may also includeactivation of network video storage (e.g., cloud camera recording). Assuch, network video storage may be a feature that is activated anddeactivated for one or more devices such as the premises device 302.

Light sensitivity (e.g., Lux) of the premises device 302 may be adjustedusing the configuration information. As an example, by adjusting theday-to-night and night-to-day settings, the sensitivity settings of thepremises device 302 may be configured for certain conditions ortransitions (e.g., day or night mode). As a further example, switchingthe premises device 302 from day to night mode may include activatinginfrared lights or sensors and triggering the infrared cut filter toenable video capture under dark conditions.

One or more services such as the configuration service 306 may managefirmware rollouts and updates including defining a location foraccessing certain firmware versions. As an example, the configurationinformation transmitted to the premises device 302 may include a URLindicating the location of firmware for updating the premises device302. Firmware Force: By setting this to true or false, Comcast maycontrol the rollout of firmware upgrades to the camera, as well as,dictate the location of the firmware.

The configuration information may include information relating to thecapture and storage of video. The configuration information may includeparameters associated with audio, group of pictures (GOP) formatting,frames per second, resolution, and bit rates of video captured via thepremises device or other device.

The configuration information may include a path (e.g., URL) indicatingthe destination that the premises device 302 should post video segments.The path may be associated with a network storage such as the videostore 304 or may be a path associated with the management service 303for managing to storage of the video segments. The configurationinformation may also include a segment format and segment duration(e.g., size). Segment formats may include MPEG2-TS or mp4 and othervideo formats now known or later developed.

The configuration service 306 may be in communication with a deviceregistry 308 to determine the number and identification of the premisesdevices 302 associated with a particular premises and/or user (e.g.,customer). The device registry 308 may include user identifiers orpremises identifiers and may associate device information with the useror premises identifiers. For example, device information may include amake, a model, a firmware version, and/or a device identifier for eachpremises device 302 associated with a particular user or premises. As afurther example, the configuration service 306, or other services, mayaccess the device registry to retrieve information relating to apremises and to ensure that the appropriate devices are beingconfigured. As devices are added to a premises or taken away from apremises, the device registry 308 may be updated.

The configuration service 306 may be in communication with anauthentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server 310 orsimilar device to manage entitlements, security, and account managementrelating to a particular security system, premises, and/or user. The AAAserver 310 may be in communication with the device registry 308 tomanage access and entitlements to the premise devices 302 on adevice-by-device basis. For example, a user may request access to videosegments captured by a particular premise device 302 at a particularpremises. As such, the AAA server 310 may be accessed to authenticate auser or device associated with the user and to facilitate selectiveaccess to the premises device 302 based on entitlements stored on theAAA server.

A control service 312 may comprise hardware and/or software configuredto facilitate the dynamic operation of one or more of the premisesdevice 302. The control service 312 may control the activation of one ormore of the premises devices 302 to capture video of at least a portionof the premises. The control service 312 may cause one or more of thepremises devices 302 to capture video in response to event rules such asmotion detection, time schedules, sensor alarms, and the like. Forexample, event detection may include monitoring for movements within thepremises and generating an alarm if certain movements are determined ornot determined over a period of time. As a further example, the controlservice 312 may use facial recognition or other techniques to assesswhether intruders are within the premises and may cause the premisesdevices 302 to activate in response to an intrusion event. Other eventrules and control of the premises devices 302 may be implemented.Heuristic models and historical information may be relied upon todetermine event rules.

In certain aspects, the functions of the control service 312 and theconfiguration service 306 may be provided by a single service viadistinct logical components. In other aspects, the control service 312and the configuration service 306 may relate to a unified logicalelement or implementation. Other physical and logical implementationsmay be used.

Various events may be tracked and an event log may be stored locally tothe premises device 302 or remotely. The control service 312 may adestination path or address for the storage of event alerts. The controlservice 312 may implement a quiet interval, where the premise device 302does not alert based on detected events. The sensitivity of eventdetection may be modified, for example, via hardware or softwaresettings using the configuration service 306 and/or the control service312. Additionally, or alternatively, sensitivity may be based on definedrules provided by the configuration service 306 and/or the controlservice 312 to govern the manner by which the premises device 302detects and/or alerts a particular event. For example, motion detectionmay be detected based on a certain speed or magnitude of movement. As afurther example, the alerting of such a detection may be triggered on asecond threshold of increased magnitude. Various rules and thresholdsmay be used to manage the detection and alerting of the detection.

The control service 312 may be in communication with an event store tostore information (e.g., event log manifest) relating to detectedevents. As an example, when an event is detected and video of thepremises is captured, the control service 312 may store informationrelating to identification of a video segment and time markers (e.g.,event manifest) relevant to the detected event. Such storage may be viaany storage medium such as an event store 314. Subsequently, the videosegments relating to the detected event may be retrieved based upon theidentification of the video segment and time markers, as stored via theevent store 314. In certain aspects, the event markers may be linked ina database to a storage location associated with one or more videosegments associated with the detected event. As such, a request for aparticular event marker may be linked to the video segment or segmentsassociated with the underlying event.

With particular reference to FIG. 3B, the premises device 302 may becaused to activate and determine status information 318 associated witha premises. The status information 318 may comprise an alarm, areminder, an intrusion detection, a motion detection, or a scheduledtime, a combination thereof, or other information associated with acondition at or affecting the premises. The status information 318 maybe transmitted via a network to a user or management service 303. Apacket or transmission unit may be used to transmit the underlyingstatus information 318 and may include a default marker 319 a. As such,congestion on the network may inhibit the status information 318 fromreaching the user on a timely basis due to latency or information loss.However, the status information 318 may be transmitted as a packetincluding a priority marker 319 b indicating that the underlying payloadshould be processed with a high level of service (e.g., priority).Status information 318 bearing this priority marker 319 b may beprocessed by network devices to minimize information loss and latency,while default traffic is processed with a lower level of service.Accordingly, conditions at the premises may be transmitted based on animportance of the particular condition. Conditional hierarchies andtables may be pre-determined for a particular premises, user, region,account, market, or may be applied at-large.

The methods and systems may be implemented on a computing system, suchas computing device 30 as shown in FIG. 2 and/or the devices and servicedescribed in relation to FIG. 3A, for example. Similarly, the methodsand systems disclosed may utilize one or more computers to perform oneor more functions in one or more locations. FIG. 4 depicts ageneral-purpose computer system that includes or is configured to accessone or more computer-accessible media. In the aspect shown, a computingdevice 400 may include one or more processors 410 a, 410 b, and/or 410 n(which may be referred herein singularly as the processor 410 or in theplural as the processors 410) coupled to a system memory 420 via aninput/output (I/O) interface 430. The computing device 400 may furtherinclude a network interface 440 coupled to an I/O interface 430.

In various aspects, the computing device 400 may be a uniprocessorsystem including one processor 410 or a multiprocessor system includingseveral processors 410 (e.g., two, four, eight, or another suitablenumber). The processors 410 may be any suitable processors capable ofexecuting instructions. For example, in various aspects, theprocessor(s) 410 may be general-purpose or embedded processorsimplementing any of a variety of instruction set architectures (ISAs),such as the x86, PowerPC, SPARC, or MIPS ISAs, or any other suitableISA. In multiprocessor systems, each of the processors 410 may commonly,but not necessarily, implement the same ISA.

In some aspects, a graphics processing unit (“GPU”) 412 may participatein providing graphics rendering and/or physics processing capabilities.A GPU can, for example, include a highly parallelized processorarchitecture specialized for graphical computations. In some aspects,the processors 410 and the GPU 412 may be implemented as one or more ofthe same type of device.

The system memory 420 may be configured to store instructions and dataaccessible by the processor(s) 410. In various aspects, the systemmemory 420 may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, suchas static random access memory (“SRAM”), synchronous dynamic RAM(“SDRAM”), nonvolatile/Flash®-type memory, or any other type of memory.In the aspect shown, program instructions and data implementing one ormore desired functions, such as those methods, techniques and datadescribed above, are shown stored within the system memory 420 as code425 and data 426.

In one aspect, the I/O interface 430 may be configured to coordinate I/Otraffic between the processor(s) 410, the system memory 420 and anyperipherals in the device, including a network interface 440 or otherperipheral interfaces. In some aspects, the I/O interface 430 mayperform any necessary protocol, timing or other data transformations toconvert data signals from one component (e.g., the system memory 420)into a format suitable for use by another component (e.g., the processor410). In some aspects, the I/O interface 430 may include support fordevices attached through various types of peripheral buses, such as avariant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard orthe Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In some aspects,the function of the I/O interface 430 may be split into two or moreseparate components, such as a north bridge and a south bridge, forexample. Also, in some aspects some or all of the functionality of theI/O interface 430, such as an interface to the system memory 420, may beincorporated directly into the processor 410.

The network interface 440 may be configured to allow data to beexchanged between the computing device 400 and other device or devices460 attached to a network or networks 450, such as other computersystems or devices, for example. In various aspects, the networkinterface 440 may support communication via any suitable wired orwireless general data networks, such as types of Ethernet networks, forexample. Additionally, the network interface 440 may supportcommunication via telecommunications/telephony networks, such as analogvoice networks or digital fiber communications networks, via storagearea networks, such as Fibre Channel SANs (storage area networks), orvia any other suitable type of network and/or protocol.

In some aspects, the system memory 420 may be one aspect of acomputer-accessible medium configured to store program instructions anddata as described above for implementing aspects of the correspondingmethods and apparatus. However, in other aspects, program instructionsand/or data may be received, sent, or stored upon different types ofcomputer-accessible media. Generally speaking, a computer-accessiblemedium may include non-transitory storage media or memory media, such asmagnetic or optical media, e.g., disk or DVD/CD coupled to computingdevice the 400 via the I/O interface 430. A non-transitorycomputer-accessible storage medium may also include any volatile ornon-volatile media, such as RAM (e.g., SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM, SRAM,etc.), ROM, etc., that may be included in some aspects of the computingdevice 400 as the system memory 420 or another type of memory. Further,a computer-accessible medium may include transmission media or signals,such as electrical, electromagnetic or digital signals, conveyed via acommunication medium, such as a network and/or a wireless link, such asthose that may be implemented via the network interface 240. Portions orall of multiple computing devices, such as those shown in FIG. 4, may beused to implement the described functionality in various aspects; forexample, software components running on a variety of different devicesand servers may collaborate to provide the functionality. In someaspects, portions of the described functionality may be implementedusing storage devices, network devices or special-purpose computersystems, in addition to or instead of being implemented usinggeneral-purpose computer systems. The term “computing device,” as usedherein, refers to at least all these types of devices and is not limitedto these types of devices.

An example method is shown in FIG. 5. In step 502, configurationinformation may be received or accessed, for example by the premisesdevice 302 (FIG. 3A). The configuration information may comprise mappinginformation relating to a map of marker values (e.g., DSCP values) andconditions such as premises conditions, alarm conditions, non-alarmconditions, etc. The configuration information may comprise othersettings such as activation of network video storage capability (e.g.,cloud camera recording), video transmission frequency, and the like.

In step 504, control information may be received or accessed, forexample by the premises device 302 (FIG. 3A). As an example, the controlinformation may control the activation of one or more of the premisesdevices 302 to capture video of at least a portion of the premises. Asanother example, the control information may cause one or more of thepremises devices 302 to activate (e.g., capture video, transmit statusinformation, etc.) in response to event rules such as motion detection,time schedules, sensor alarms, and the like. For example, eventdetection may include monitoring for movements within the premises andgenerating an alarm if certain movements are determined or notdetermined over a period of time.

In step 506, first status information may be received or accessed by adevice associated with a premises, for example by the premises device302 (FIG. 3A). The device may be or comprise a network gateway, asensor, a video camera, and the like. The first status information maycomprise any information indicating a condition of the premises. Thefirst status information may comprise audio, video, machine language,and/or alphanumeric characters. The first status information may beassociated with an alarm, a reminder, an intrusion detection, a motiondetection, or a scheduled time, or a combination thereof.

In step 508, a priority condition may be determined based at least onthe first status information. Determining the priority condition maycomprise applying one or more priority rules to at least the firststatus information. Implementation of priority rules may comprise adetermination of a state of a premises management system or device. Forexample, information such as first status information may be transmittedas a normal or default condition when a premises management system isinactive or disarmed. Such information may be transmitted with highpriority when the premises management system is determined to be armedor active. Priority rules may comprise specific condition thresholdssuch as time of day, state of device, time since last statustransmission, state of associated devices and/or premises, and/or userconfigured rules. Such rules may be implemented to control howtransmission from the premises devices and/or premises management systemis managed.

Determining the priority condition may be based on the mappinginformation associated with marker values and related conditions. Amarker value may be mapped with preset condition such as door/windowalarms, fire alarm, alerts, motion detection, and/or a state of varioussensors and/or device throughout a premises. One marker value mayindicate a video camera has detected motion in a premises. Anothermarker value may indicate an outside light is illuminated. Variousconditions and configurations may be mappered to various marker values.A marker value such as a DSCP value may indicate a level of networktraffic processing priority. For example, a default marker value may be000 000 and may indicate a best effort traffic management over anetwork. As such, a network device (e.g., router) may implement its bestefforts to pass a packet with this default service level. As a furtherexample, other marker values such as 101 110 may indicate a higher levelof service as compared to the best effort. Such a higher level ofservice (e.g., priority condition) may include expedited forwarding orassured forwarding. Information (e.g., packets) marked with higherlevels of service (e.g., priority) are more likely to be processedthrough a network device without packet loss during congestion, ascompared to default level packets.

In step 510, the first status information may be transmitted including afirst differentiated services code point indicative of the prioritycondition. The first differentiated services code point may be orcomprise a value selected from a plurality of pre-determined values.Each of the plurality of values may indicate a specific prioritycondition that is distinct from another of the plurality of values.

In step 512, a second status information may be transmitted including asecond differentiated services code point indicative of the normalcondition. A normal condition may be a default condition, a non-alarmcondition, a best efforts condition, and the like.

An example method is shown in FIG. 6. In step 602, first statusinformation may be received or accessed by a device associated with apremises, for example by the premises device 302 (FIG. 3A). The devicemay be or comprise a network gateway, a sensor, a video camera, and thelike. The first status information may comprise any informationindicating a first condition of the premises. The first statusinformation may comprise audio, video, machine language, and/oralphanumeric characters. The first status information may be associatedwith an alarm, a reminder, an intrusion detection, a motion detection,or a scheduled time, or a combination thereof.

In step 604, the first status information may be transmitted including afirst packet marker indicative of the first condition. The first statusinformation may be transmitted via a network such as a packet network.The first packet marker may be or include a differentiated services codepoint. The first packet marker may be or comprise a value selected froma plurality of pre-determined values. Each of the plurality of valuesmay indicate a specific priority condition that is distinct from anotherof the plurality of values.

In step 606, second status information may be received or accessed by adevice associated with a premises, for example by the premises device302 (FIG. 3A). The device may be or comprise a network gateway, asensor, a video camera, and the like. The second status information maycomprise any information indicating a second condition of the premises.The second status information may comprise audio, video, machinelanguage, and/or alphanumeric characters. The second status informationmay be associated with an alarm, a reminder, an intrusion detection, amotion detection, or a scheduled time, or a combination thereof.

In step 608, the second status information may be transmitted includinga second packet marker indicative of the second condition. The secondstatus information may be transmitted via a network such as a packetnetwork. The second packet marker may be or include a differentiatedservices code point. The second packet marker may be or comprise a valueselected from a plurality of pre-determined values. Each of theplurality of values may indicate a specific priority condition that isdistinct from another of the plurality of values. The first packetmarker and the second packet marker may be configured to cause arecipient device to execute one or more operations based at least on thefirst packet marker and the second packet marker.

An example method is shown in FIG. 7. In step 702, first statusinformation including a first marker may be received or accessed by adevice. The device may be or comprise a network device, for example. Thefirst status information may comprise any information indicating a firstcondition of the premises. The first status information may compriseaudio, video, machine language, and/or alphanumeric characters. Thefirst status information may be associated with an alarm, a reminder, anintrusion detection, a motion detection, or a scheduled time, or acombination thereof.

In step 704, a first operation may be caused to be execute based atleast on the first marker. As an example, a network device may receiveor access the first marker and may process the first status informationbased at least on the first marker. The first marker may indicate thatthe first status information be processed under a best efforts servicelevel or a priority service level, for example.

In step 706, second status information including a second marker may bereceived or accessed by a device. The device may be or comprise anetwork device, for example. The second status information may compriseany information indicating a second condition of the premises. Thesecond status information may comprise audio, video, machine language,and/or alphanumeric characters. The second status information may beassociated with an alarm, a reminder, an intrusion detection, a motiondetection, or a scheduled time, or a combination thereof.

In step 708, a second operation may be caused to be execute based atleast on the second marker. As an example, a network device may receiveor access the second marker and may process the second statusinformation based at least on the first marker. The second marker mayindicate that the second status information be processed under a bestefforts service level or a priority service level, for example.

An example method is shown in FIG. 8. In step 802, status informationmay be received or accessed by a device associated with a premises, forexample by the premises device 302 (FIG. 3A). The device may be orcomprise a network gateway, a sensor, a video camera, and the like. Thedevice may be associated with a premises management system such as asensor network, a security system, and/or home automation system. Thestatus information may comprise any information indicating a conditionof the premises. The status information may comprise audio, video,machine language, and/or alphanumeric characters. The status informationmay be associated with an alarm, a reminder, an intrusion detection, amotion detection, or a scheduled time, or a combination thereof. As anexample, the status information may be associated with a particularpriority level, which may further be prioritized based on additionalinformation such as a state of a device or system. As a further example,a mapping of priority conditions and marker values may be used toindicate various conditions (and/or priority levels associated with suchconditions) represented by the status information.

In step 804, a state of a premise management system may be determined.For example, the status information of step 802 may be associated with apremises management system such as a sensor network, a security system,and/or home automation system. The state of the premises managementsystem may be active/armed and/or inactive/disarmed. The premisesmanagement system may have other states such as vacation mode, daytimemode, nighttime mode, etc. The state of the premises management systemmay be determined by receiving or accessing state information from adevice (e.g., controller) associated with the premises managementsystem.

In step 806, the status information or an indication of the statusinformation may be transmitted with a first marker based at least on anactive state of the premises management system. For example, in responseto a determination of an active state of the premise management system,one or more first packets comprising a first packet marker may betransmitted. The one or more first packets may be associated with orindicative of the status information. The first packet marker mayindicate a high priority condition such that the first packets areprocessed with higher priority than default packets. A default markervalue may be 000 000 and may indicate a best effort traffic managementover a network. As such, a network device (e.g., router) may implementits best efforts to pass a packet with this default service level. As afurther example, other marker values such as 101 110 may indicate ahigher level of service as compared to the best effort. Such a higherlevel of service (e.g., priority condition) may include expeditedforwarding or assured forwarding. Information (e.g., packets) markedwith higher levels of service (e.g., priority) are more likely to beprocessed through a network device without packet loss duringcongestion, as compared to default level packets.

In step 808, the status information or an indication of the statusinformation may be transmitted with a second marker based at least on aninactive state of the premises management system. For example, inresponse to a determination of an inactive state of the premisemanagement system, one or more second packets comprising a second packetmarker may be transmitted. The one or more second packets may beassociated with the status information. The second packet marker mayindicate a normal priority condition. As such, a state of the premisesmanagement system may be used to determine a priority level for handlingthe transmission and/or processing of status information. For example,status information representing a motion detection may be transmitted asnormal priority when a premises system is disarmed but the same motiondetection information may be transmitted and/or processed with highpriority when the premises management system is armed.

While the methods and systems have been described in connection withpreferred embodiments and specific examples, it is not intended that thescope be limited to the particular embodiments set forth, as theembodiments herein are intended in all respects to be examples ratherthan restrictive.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, it is in no way intended that anymethod set forth herein be construed as requiring that its steps beperformed in a specific order. Accordingly, where a method claim doesnot actually recite an order to be followed by its steps or it is nototherwise specifically stated in the claims or descriptions that thesteps are to be limited to a specific order, it is no way intended thatan order be inferred, in any respect. This holds for any possiblenon-express basis for interpretation, including: matters of logic withrespect to arrangement of steps or operational flow; plain meaningderived from grammatical organization or punctuation; the number or typeof embodiments described in the specification.

As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms“a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearlydictates otherwise. Ranges may be expressed herein as from “about” oneparticular value, and/or to “about” another particular value. When sucha range is expressed, another embodiment includes from the oneparticular value and/or to the other particular value. Similarly, whenvalues are expressed as approximations, by use of the antecedent“about,” it will be understood that the particular value forms anotherembodiment. It will be further understood that the endpoints of each ofthe ranges are significant both in relation to the other endpoint, andindependently of the other endpoint.

“Optional” or “optionally” means that the subsequently described eventor circumstance may or may not occur, and that the description includesinstances where said event or circumstance occurs and instances where itdoes not.

Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the word“comprise” and variations of the word, such as “comprising” and“comprises,” means “including but not limited to,” and is not intendedto exclude, for example, other components, integers or steps. “Example”and is not intended to convey an indication of a preferred or idealembodiment. “Such as” is not used in a restrictive sense, but forexplanatory purposes.

Disclosed are components that may be used to perform the disclosedmethods and systems. These and other components are disclosed herein,and it is understood that when combinations, subsets, interactions,groups, etc. of these components are disclosed that while specificreference of each various individual and collective combinations andpermutation of these may not be explicitly disclosed, each isspecifically contemplated and described herein, for all methods andsystems. This applies to all aspects of this application including, butnot limited to, steps in disclosed methods. Thus, if there are a varietyof additional steps that may be performed it is understood that each ofthese additional steps may be performed with any specific embodiment orcombination of embodiments of the disclosed methods.

The present methods and systems may be understood more readily byreference to the following detailed description of preferred embodimentsand the examples included therein and to the Figures and their previousand following description.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the methods andsystems may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software andhardware aspects. Furthermore, the methods and systems may take the formof a computer program product on a computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable program instructions (e.g., computer software)embodied in the storage medium. More particularly, the present methodsand systems may take the form of web-implemented computer software. Anysuitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized including harddisks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, or magnetic storage devices.

Embodiments of the methods and systems are described below withreference to block diagrams and flowcharts of methods, systems,apparatuses and computer program products. It will be understood thateach block of the block diagrams and flowcharts, and combinations ofblocks in the block diagrams and flowcharts, respectively, may beimplemented by computer program instructions. These computer programinstructions may be loaded on a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable data processing apparatus create a meansfor implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block orblocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that may direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including computer-readableinstructions for implementing the function specified in the flowchartblock or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loadedonto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or otherprogrammable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process suchthat the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flowcharts supportcombinations of means for performing the specified functions,combinations of steps for performing the specified functions and programinstruction means for performing the specified functions. It will alsobe understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowcharts, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowcharts, may beimplemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems thatperform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations may be made without departing from thescope or spirit. Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice disclosedherein. It is intended that the specification be considered examples,with a true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

1. A system comprising: one or more premises management devicesassociated with a premises; and a computing device in communication withthe one or more premises management devices, the computing deviceconfigured to: determine, based on status information indicating acondition at the premises, a state of a premises management systemassociated with one or more of the computing device or the one or morepremises management devices, in response to a determination of an activestate of the premise management system, send one or more first packetscomprising a first packet marker, the one or more first packetsassociated with the status information, wherein the first packet markerindicates a high priority condition such that transmission of the one ormore first packets via one or more network devices is based on the highpriority condition; and in response to a determination of an inactivestate of the premise management system, send one or more second packetscomprising a second packet marker, the one or more second packetsassociated with the status information, wherein the second packet markerindicates a normal priority condition such that transmission of the oneor more second packets via one or more network devices is based on thenormal priority condition.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein thecomputing device comprises a network gateway.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the one or more premises management devices are located at thepremises and configured to capture live video of at least a portion ofthe premises.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the condition is analarm, a reminder, an intrusion detection, a motion detection, or ascheduled time, or a combination thereof.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein one or more of the first packet marker and the second packetmarker comprise a differentiated services code point.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein one of the first packet marker and the second packetmarker indicates the condition at the premises.
 7. The system of claim1, wherein the computing device is configured to receive the statusinformation from the one or more of the premises management devices. 8.The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more of the computing deviceor one or more premises management devices are associated with one ormore of home automation or security associated with the premises.
 9. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, whenexecuted, cause: determining a priority condition based at least onfirst status information associated with a premises; sending the firststatus information including a first differentiated services code pointindicative of the priority condition; and sending second statusinformation including a second differentiated services code pointindicative of a normal condition.
 10. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first statusinformation is associated with home automation.
 11. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first statusinformation is associated with security of the premises.
 12. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the firststatus information is associated with an alarm, a reminder, an intrusiondetection, a motion detection, or a scheduled time, or a combinationthereof.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9,wherein the determining the priority condition comprises applying one ormore priority rules to at least the first status information.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the firstdifferentiated services code point comprises a value selected from aplurality of pre-determined values, wherein each of the plurality ofpre-determined values indicates a specific priority condition that isdistinct from another of the plurality of values.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the second differentiatedservices code point comprises a best effort value.
 16. A devicecomprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructionsthat, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to:send, via a packet network, one or more first packets associated withthe first status information indicating a first condition at thepremises, the one or more first packets comprising a first packet markerindicative of the first condition; and send, via a packet network, oneor more second packets associated with the second status informationindicating a second condition at the premises, the one or more secondpackets comprising a second packet marker indicative of the secondcondition, wherein the first packet marker and the second packet markerare configured to cause a recipient device to execute one or moreoperations based at least on the first packet marker and the secondpacket marker such that the one or more first packets are managed with adifferent priority than the one or more second packet markers.
 17. Thedevice of claim 16, wherein one or more of the first status informationor the second status information is associated with home automation. 18.The device of claim 16, wherein one or more of the first statusinformation or the second status information is associated with securityof the premises.
 19. The device of claim 16, wherein one or more of thefirst condition and the second condition is an alarm, a reminder, anintrusion detection, a motion detection, or a scheduled time, or acombination thereof.
 20. The device of claim 16, wherein one or more ofthe first packet marker and the second packet marker comprise adifferentiated services code point.